Protestors occupy Hackney to highlight the ‘99%’

Occupy protestors get their message across in Hackney. Photograph: Louis Emanuel

An ‘Occupy Hackney’ protest sprang up yesterday afternoon (15 December) on Narroway, with beating drums spreading the message of the global Occupy movement advocating social justice and a reduction in wealth inequality.

A group of around 40 protesters occupied a space outside the old Town Hall at 2pm, giving out leaflets accompanied by the rhythms of a local samba band.

Alexandra, 30, an activist from Homerton, told the Hackney Citizen: “Today is all about trying to spread the Occupy movement to the local neighbourhood and get more local people involved in local problems.”

Victor Cerda, 27, a passer-by, said: “I think the global movement is about re-distributing wealth and this is an issue you can see here in Hackney. Hackney is not a rich borough. We see, we deal with and we live in poverty here.”

The protests follow last month’s occupation of a UBS office block in Sun Street. The squat, known as the ‘Bank of Ideas’, held banner-making workshops on Tuesday afternoon in preparation for the event in Central Hackney yesterday.

A statement issued before the event read: “Join us in celebrating Hackney’s place in the 99%, and strengthening our community to work together saying, ‘We won’t pay for their crisis.’”

Ryan Irvan, 26, handing out flyers at the protest, said: “Hackney is about the 99%. A lot of people around here are suffering from the system we have. There’s a lot of homelessness and people out of work.”

Alexandra added: “We hope to organise more events like these in the future in different parts of Hackney.”

Interesting report on Sky news about rent increases in Hackney due to the Olympics. Woman in Hackney having rent increased from £850 per month to £1100. Evidence of landlords insisting tenants leave the properties during olympics so they can rent them out to tourists. Unemployment in Newham still around 14%. All disgraceful so how about a report on it.